Wood armwand vs Metal armwand

There are techniques to make wood stable. Such as immersing it in a stablizing product, and applying a vacuum to draw the water out and the stablizer in. This replaces the water in the wood with a resin that will not be effected by humidity. Certain woods are much more stable than others as well.

Though I don't live in a very dry climate, the humidity indoors does get pretty low in the winter. I have had no issues with my Reed tonearms.

Geoffkait, Sapphire would be interesting but extremely expensive. Not to mention heavy and very fragile. If you could make a tapered tube from sapphire that was not too heavy, It would probably cost $100k retail. That would be a very expensive experiment if it did not work out.

It all about the sound. I have not found the sound to vary noticeably between different samples of wood armed tonearms of the same model, material, and manufacture. At least of the three I have heard enough to make that statement. Which are the Reed, Durand, and Schroder.

I also do not find the sound to vary from day to day, with my Reed tonearms. When rechecking my settings they are not different either. So at least IME stability is a non issue.

I think too many people pass up wood tonearms because they fear these issues. I can't say all wood tonearms are free of these issues, but the ones I have experience with are.

Dnath, What wood tonearms have you heard? What are you impressed with?

Well, Ralph I've had one of my Reed's for over 2 years, and the other about a year now. No problems.

Dnath, I was just trying to get a feel for what arms you have listened to. The Phantom is a good arm, but not it's not everyone's favorite. Metal adds it's own coloration's as well. Nothing is perfect. You have to pick your poison.

Kind of like all metal speakers. I'm not a fan.

Ralph, that is true. It is kind of a stretch to compare tonearms to speakers. Just trying to point out the differences in the sound of materials.

I should have been more specific about the speakers, even though it is a bit off topic. I meant the crop of speakers using all metal enclosures. The ones I have heard are missing the body of the sound. Just not natural sounding to me. I have heard a few speakers with metal cones sound good with the right surrounding eq. I've been told the trick with metal drivers is to cross them over well before their break up point. The only metal tweeters I care for are ribbons.